In Latin America, there is a diverse collection of feminist movements aimed at defining, establishing, and achieving equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for Latin American women. Feminism in Latin America is wide-ranging and refers to feminist movements across the region of South and Central America and the Caribbean. Latin American feminists, like their counterparts in other spheres, are individuals who practice feminism by advocating or supporting the rights and equality of women. Feminism in the Latin American context emerged to challenge gender inequalities and patriarchy against a backdrop of colonialism and a system of racial and class hierarchies. Feminists in Latin America have worked to prioritize region-specific movements with priorities distinct from those of feminists in Europe and North America, while also embracing transnational and intersectional thought.
Context and History Latin American feminism exists in the context of centuries of colonialism, including the transportation and subjugation of enslaved people from Africa, and the mistreatment of indigenous people. The origins of modern Latin American feminism can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s social movements, where it encompasses the women's liberation movement, but prior feminist ideas had expanded before there were written records. While feminist movements in the region are often linked to the 1960s and 1970s, when women's liberation organizations began to gain prominence, the historical genealogy of Latin American feminism shows that feminist concepts are much older and more deeply rooted in the region's colonial past. Across various regions in Latin America and the Caribbean, the definition of feminism varies among groups, reflecting cultural, political, and social involvement. The expression of diversity and change from the viewpoint of those who have historically been marginalized, particularly through the experiences of colonialism and patriarchy, has consistently been a focus of feminist philosophy in Latin America.
The emergence of the Latin American feminist movement can be attributed to five key factors. It has been said that the beginning of the revolution for Latin American feminism started in the 1800s with two women, Manuela Sáenz in Ecuador and Juana Manuela Gorriti in Argentina. Before these movements, women had almost no rights under colonial rule. However, women from wealthier European families had more educational opportunities. Then, in the 1920s, feminism was reignited and shifted toward political and educational reforms for women's rights. In the 1930-50s, a group of Puerto Rican women founded what is now considered the movement for Latin American women. Some of these movements included the founding of the needle industry, such as factory work as seamstresses. Then, in the 1960s, the movement shifted to advocate for women's bodily and economic rights. The 1970s saw a downfall in the movement due to laissez-faire liberalism combined with free-market capitalism. After the fall of neoliberalism, the 1980s brought a resurgence of the feminist movement towards political rights. The 1980s also began to shed light on the topic of domestic violence. The 1990s made strides towards legal equality for women. In today's society, Latin American feminism has been broken down into multiple subcategories based on ethnicity or topic.
Some early Feminist movements in Latin America have built on the foundations of historical movements of these types of organizations while evolving to address new political and social challenges and situations. Recent work in this field shows that transnational feminist networks and digital activism have improved how feminists have organized across borders and regions, in campaigns such as Ni Una Menos, women mobilized against gender-based violence and femicide. Grassroots feminism along with social media has increased knowledge and placed pressure on governments to correct inequalities. Recent studies have zeroed in on the importance of intersectionality and decolonial approaches with a priority on experiences of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and marginalized women. Feminist movements in Latin America in recent times have moved on from a focus on human rights to emancipatory projects, in an effort to solve economic justice issues, political participation, and social transformation.
Latin American and Latino feminist theory Since feminist theory often relies on Western literary works rather than personal experiences, Latin American feminist theory is a construct that has only recently emerged to confer legitimacy on Latina women in Eurocentric contexts. Latin American feminist theorists are known to draw on sources not only from Western countries but also from Latin American history, personal accounts, and research in the social sciences. There is a controversy known as "epistemic privilege" (epistemic privilege is known as the privilege a person knows or has first-hand experience on a particular subject. For example, a woman would know what issues impact them more than a man would), regarding how most Latina feminist philosophers enjoy a cultural and economic privilege that distances them from the living conditions of the majority of Latin American women. Feminist philosopher Ofelia Schutte has argued that "feminist philosophy requires a home in a broader Latin American Feminist theory and not in the discipline of philosophy in Latin America."
Because Latin America is a vast region, the diversity of feminist theory there can make it difficult to characterize. However, several notable Latin feminist theorists include Marcela Ríos Tobar, Ofelia Schutte, and Gloria Anzaldúa. Latina feminist philosopher Maria Lugones addressed ethnocentric racism, bilingualism, multiculturalism, and her concept of "address". Many Latina feminists borrow concepts that Lugones introduced, such as "the role of language, bodies, objects, and places." Graciela Hierro, born in 1928 in Mexico, addressed "feminist ethics and the roles of feminism in public and academic spaces.
Causes
There is a fairly solid consensus among academics and activists that women's participation in leftist movements has been one of the central reasons for the development of Latin American feminism. However, some Latin American countries were able to attain legal rights for women in right wing, conservative contexts. Julie Shayne argues that there are five factors that contributed to the emergence of revolutionary feminism: experience in revolutionary movements showed a challenge to the status quo perception of gender behavior logistical trainings a political opening unmet basic needs by revolutionary movements a collective feminist consciousness The movement developed in close connection with Anglo-American feminism, especially liberal feminism, which placed a strong emphasis on women's economic independence, political and legal equality, and bodily autonomy, including sexual and reproductive rights. However, there has been resistance to including the viewpoints of excluded groups, especially in relation to race, class, and sexuality, inside the mainstream feminist movement. A white, urban, middle-class elite has mainly ruled the feminist debate in Latin America. This elite has an obvious heterosexist bias and has ignored the experiences of lesbians and indigenous women. Indigenous feminists argue for a collective defense of indigenous women's rights as part of larger community and cultural battles, criticizing the individualistic nature of liberal feminism. Lesbian feminists, on the other hand, confront lesbophobia within the feminist movement and fight the heterosexualization of society, which they view as a tool for oppressing women. The two groups have brought up major concerns regarding liberal feminism's flaws, especially its tendency to overlook racial, class, and colonial issues.
History and the Evolution of Feminism in Latin America
1800s Although the term feminist would not be used to describe women's rights advocates until the 1890s, many women of the nineteenth century, mostly elite or middle class, tried to challenge dominant gender norms.
During the nineteenth century, there were similar patterns across the region of informal gatherings led by women intellectuals. These helped shape early feminist knowledge and were present throughout Latin America. In Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, women writers and educators used literature and salons to challenge gender norms, even when formal political participation was denied. In Latin America, early feminist thought and expression emerged through debates on education and morality. Scholars note that these early interventions by women writers, teachers, and activists were, however, limited by class and race, as they were hosted primarily by more elite women. At this time, Indigenous and Afro-descendant women were largely excluded from these spaces but were active in resistance and labor struggles. In the region as a whole, early feminism developed unevenly following the hierarchical system shaped by a colonial past.
Manuela Sáenz was a woman born in 1797 in Quito, New Granada (Modern-Day Ecuador), who lived to be a heroine figure to many due to her involvement with Simón Bolívar as not only a supporting voice to his idea of independence but also the woman who saved him from an assassination attempt, guiding him to safety through a bedroom window. Her significance did not come immediately. Rather, it took modern-day feminist voices to bring her into the spotlight and claim that she was a feminist symbol of her time.
In addition to Sáenz, several other women actively participated on the front lines of the war effort in support of Latin American independence and women's empowerment. Micaela Bastidas, the wife of Tupac Amaru, a Peruvian indigenous revolutionary who fought against the Spanish Empire. Micaela Bastidas directly assisted in the logistics of the attempted revolution, but was later captured and tortured to death by the Spanish Empire. She remained strong-willed until the time of her death and did not release sensitive and crucial information about the attempted revolution during her imprisonment.
Juana Manuela Gorriti, an Argentinian journalist and writer born in 1818, advocated greater rights for women and wrote literary works with women protagonists that were both "romantic and political". Gorriti was a well-known organizer and host of informal gatherings in Lima and Buenos Aires. Similar to Sáenz, Gorriti held tertulias for literary men and women, one of whom was Clorinda Matto de Turner, a novelist sympathetic towards Indians and critical of the priesthood in Peru. Gorriti also worked with Teresa González, an avid writer who ran a girls' school and advocated education for women.
Flora Tristan, born in 1803 to a Frenchwoman and a Peruvian aristocrat, significantly influenced early feminism and socialism, spreading them from Latin America to Europe. Tristan was an early feminist and socialist who sought to raise awareness that working women and men were a class like any other, deserving of working rights and recognition. In Workers' Union, a book published in 1843, she attempts to introduce this notion to French workers. She advocates creating a workers' union, believing the working class needs to recognize itself as a unified social class. She also strongly argued for women's right to work and earn a fair wage, seeing economic independence as the key to women's ability to choose relationships based on love rather than being sold into marriage by their families. Although she did not live to see its success, her friend Elisa Lemonnier later carried forward this vision, establishing the first professional school for women in 1862.